Product Overview

Many of the funeral procession scenes of the ancient nobles of the New Kingdom have survived in their tombs in Thebes. This iconographical and archaeological exploration of the depictions from forty seven Eighteenth Dynasty and twenty four Ramesside period tombs, takes the reader on a voyage of discovery. This book is novel in that it is the first to discuss the artistic development of funerary scenes over the four hundred years of the New Kingdom, covering the different reigns of the period. It shows the sequence of events in the funeral processions and how they developed over the course of time. Moreover, it covers many different sites in the Theban necropolis, including scenes from many closed and unpublished tombs.This first ever survey describes the pictorial drama that was the funeral procession; from its very beginning through the various acts, participants and divinities playing out their parts, to the grand finale. It draws the reader's attention to unexplored themes of rare and unique scenes, and finally, it shows the echoes that remain from these ancient funerals in modern Egypt today, and how these can be matched to those depicted in the tomb scenes.